Norwegian Nobel Committee has recently said it had awarded Prof Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank the peace prize in 2006 after it pieced their “larger and very positive picture together”.
“When a bank has 7-8 million borrowers, it is easy to find isolated negative examples. It was only when the Committee had pieced this larger and very positive picture together that the Committee came to the conclusion it did,” said a press statement issued by Grameen Bank, quoting the Norwegian Nobel Committee.
The bank issued the statement on Thursday after it received a letter from the Norwegian Nobel Committee. Geir Lundestad, secretary of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, signed the letter dated January 27.
The committee issued the letter after a Norwegian TV aired a documentary in December last year titled “Caught in Micro-debt” saying Yunus mishandled some donors’ fund.
Later, various reports were published in Bangladesh.
In the letter, Lundestad said the committee has learned about the “charges recently leveled against Yunus and Grameen Bank” in Norway and Bangladesh.
“As I have already stated on various occasions to the media, before the Norwegian Nobel Committee in 2006 decided to award the Nobel Peace Price to Professor Yunus and to Grameen Bank, it had for several years looked into their qualifications.
“Without going into detail since there is 50 year secrecy rule for the entire Nobel system, I can testify to the fact that the vetting process was actually even more thorough than what is normally the case,” the later read.
The secretary said the committee consulted several top international and Norwegian experts on Yunus and Grameen Bank before taking the final decision.
Grammeen Bank welcomed the letter from the Norwegian Nobel Committee.
“We warmly welcome this support from the Norwegian Nobel Committee, who represents a major support within this context. We have no doubt that this present declaration will serve as a strong proof of the integrity of both Professor Yunus and the Grameen Bank,” read the Grameen Bank press release.
